Red Strings
by Gryvon
Summary: A collection of scenes that fit in with "Written in Red", in no particular order.
1. Chasing Shadows

Peter's not sure what wakes him. Things in the Hale house have been hectic ever since Stiles's big reveal and Claudia being turned. John and Claudia have taken up temporary residence in the guest room until the full moon passes. Peter has taken to locking his bedroom door to keep Stiles from sneaking into his bed. It only works half the time.

Tonight appears to be one of those times. Peter is alone in his room. Light from the full moon streams in his window and nothing is out of place. Peter can't help but feel like something is off.

He pulls on a robe and starts checking bedrooms. He pauses outside each door and listens to the even heartbeats inside. Talia and Paul. Claudia and John. Amelia and Jessica. The stairs creak as he wanders up to the attic. He finds Cora, Laura, Derek, Charlotte, and Amber all where they should be. Stiles is not. He peeks inside Derek's room just in case but the air mattress on the floor is empty.

His heart jumps to his throat but he refuses to panic—at least, not immediately. He concentrates and there it is—Stiles's heartbeat—even and steady. Peter sighs in relief and wanders down to the first floor. Stiles is out onto the porch, sitting on the front steps and staring intently out into the darkness.

Stiles doesn't even turn as Peter settles onto the porch steps next to him.

"What are you doing up so late?" Peter asks. He runs his hand through Stiles's hair. They've been letting it get longer than they used to. Stiles and Peter both like it that way.

"Waiting," Stiles says, like that's an answer.

"For what?" He's used to Stiles acting odd. He used to think it was just a personality quirk, just a child being an imaginative, creative child. His eyes have been opened now and he's starting to wonder if all of those quirks had a hidden meaning he was too blind to see.

"The bad woman."

Peter's heart freezes and he can't help the way his arm curls around Stiles, pulling him protectively tight against Peter's side. The last 'bad' person Stiles had talked about was Gerard Argent and his plan to murder Deucalion's pack at their peace treaty meeting. Stiles had convinced Deucalion to talk with Gerard's son Chris instead. For the first time in years, there's a solid treaty between the Argents and the werewolf clans of the United States. All thanks to a remarkable child.

"What bad woman?" Peter forces himself to ask. Gerard has a daughter, but there are a number of other unaffiliated hunters who could see the treaty as a sign of weakness.

Stiles doesn't turn away from the woods. "The one with the bad man. They want to take our family away." Peter starts to rise, to call out to Talia and Amelia and the others so they can get the kids to safety, but Stiles's small hand grips Peter's arm impossibly tight. "It's okay," Stiles says, his voice sure and confident. "My friends won't let them."

Peter swallows. He doesn't sit down, but he doesn't finish rising either. "Stiles, I don't think pixies will be of much help. They're hunters. They know-"

Stiles squeezes Peter's arm and points off into the trees. "Look."

Peter does look. At first, there's nothing. Just trees and shadows cast by the moon. Then the shadows move, fluid and sinuous and not at all like any living thing Peter has ever seen. He swallows hard and sits heavily on the porch steps. That's not… Those aren't… He doesn't even know what they are but the very sight of them frightens him to the core. Stiles, the impossible child that he is, doesn't even seem afraid. The dark shadows slip away into the trees.

"Stiles, what…."

"Shh." Stiles brings a finger to his lips.

The woods are silent. The house creaks slightly, old wood settling. Eleven heartbeats sound in steady rhythm. John snores faintly before there's a shift of fabric and he quiets, lulled by Claudia wrapping around him. Amelia talks in her sleep, muttering about needing turnips for soup. He has no idea what he's supposed to be listening for until he hears it—faint and distant, the screams.

Peter sits up ramrod straight. Out there in the woods people are dying. It sounds awful. Their screams are terrified, pain-filled, wretched and cut off too quick. They're not nearby but they could have been. They're definitely on the Hale property. They were coming here.

All too soon the screams are gone and Stiles stands up. He moves to step down from the porch but Peter stops him, hand shooting out reflexively as he sees shadows in the treeline once more.

Stiles turns. He smiles and pats the hand holding him. "It's okay. They're my friends. Your friends too." And then he slips away, out of Peter's grasp and down onto the grass and gravel of the lawn.

He doesn't go far. Only a few steps. One of the shadow things lopes out to meet him. As it comes closer a sort of shape takes form. Not quite a wolf or a cougar but something similar, though sharp and jagged and unreal. There is no color to it but inky darkness. No eyes, but a definite sense of a mouth that hangs open, gaping like a panting dog but much more deadly.

Stiles pets the thing, somehow, on its strange pseudo-head. He doesn't even have to lean down. The thing is almost as tall as Stiles is. It leans against Stiles, rubbing against him in a way that's obviously affectionate.

Stiles looks back at Peter and grins. "Do you want to pet him?"

"I'll pass."

Stiles shrugs and kisses the top of the thing's head before sending it out into the night with a few words of thanks and a promise to play some other time. When Stiles reaches the steps, he holds out his hand. Peter takes it. Together they lock up the house and head up to bed. Peter doesn't even think of protesting when Stiles crawls into bed with him.

Stiles is out in seconds, his body curled against Peter's side as close as he can get. Peter lies awake staring at the ceiling.

How had he not known those things were out there? How is he supposed to go out in the woods again without thinking that one of them might be watching him? He's terrified but also not because apparently those things are friends of Stiles and somehow, by association, friends of the Hales. They protected him and his family. They're probably still out there, guardians of the Hale land.

Peter wonders how many other strange friends Stiles has. How many more terrifying creatures come to his soulmate's beck and call? Peter knows he's the adult in the relationship but it makes him feel better knowing that Stiles is sleeping by his side, protecting Peter from the monsters lurking in the night. It shouldn't work that way, but it does, and Peter has never been more proud that Stiles is his.

He can't wait to see what a terrifying force Stiles will be when he grows up. If he's feeling generous, he might even warn the others.

No. He won't warn them. What's the fun in that?


	2. A Different Understanding

Stiles knows that he is different from the other children. They can't see what he does. They don't understand like he does. He's not sure if anyone really understands, even the adults.

He remembers meeting Padwa first. Padwa's tree sits in the middle of Summer Street Park, though it's disingenuous to say that the willow is Padwa's tree when Padwa is the tree and also not. To him, Padwa looks like a lady made out of vines. Her hair is a long flow of wispy leaves that trail along the grass behind her as she dances. She notices Stiles first and greets him, and it's only polite for Stiles to greet her back. He's two, maybe three, at the time, so his vocabulary is limited for their first few conversations, but Padwa seems to know what he means even if he can't say it.

His mom can't see Padwa but Padwa doesn't mind. She isn't usually seen and is fine with just the birds and squirrels for company but she says it's nice that he comes to visit her sometimes.

After that a few of the locals pop up to make themselves known. There's the gnome family that lives in Mrs. Johnson's garden and the pixies that flutter by one by one until he's met the whole swarm. He meets the crows that are not crows and a lost badger and a handful of creatures there are no names for but who are pleasant just the same.

Then he meets Peter the wolf. His wolf. With Peter comes a whole pack of wolves—and Paul—and Stiles doesn't mind being the odd child so much when he has other odd children to play with. Derek and Laura are the oldest at ten and twelve, respectively, then Charlotte who's seven, but Cora's only a year older. Amber's just a baby but Stiles knows they'll grow up to be friends and tries to include her when he can.

They spend a lot of time in the woods, running and laughing. They swim in the lake while Nadra watches over them. The nymph won't let any of them drown. He meets Takta and Mera, who are like Padwa but not. Cousins, they tell him.

He plays hide and seek with wolves and only cheats sometimes when the howlers are out or when the pixies want him to play with them instead. He meets the stump and talks to the thing inside. It's not nice, so he tells Padwa and a lady in silver comes to take it away. The stump seems happier after that.

He's eight when he meets the shining lady. He's old enough by then to know that people think the things he talks about are weird and they won't understand. Still, he checks with Cora first to see if she can see the sparkles but she can't. Stiles shrugs and leaves Cora to her book. They're supposed to be having quiet reading time but Stiles wants to talk to the lady—their new librarian.

He tugs on her sleeve lightly to get her attention. She blinks once behind thick glasses on thin wire frames as she looks down at him. The glasses make her eyes look large like an owl's. Stiles leans close and whispers "I think your sparkles are pretty."

The librarian smiles and kneels down. She whispers too, saying that she just moved here but that she's happy to have met Stiles. He tells her about Padwa, Nadra, Takta, and Mera. She seems like she would get along with them. She says her name is Amarannaleeah but to call her Amanda. Her grandmother moved with her and she invites Stiles over for tea. They make arrangements for Saturday when Stiles's mom is working and he can slip away from the Hales for a bit.

He debates telling Peter about it, maybe asking him to come along, but when he gets home and tells Peter about the sparkling lady, Peter gives him that same look his mother does when he talks about Padwa and Stiles decides it will be his secret for now. He can introduce Peter when he's older and Peter understands a bit better.

Still, he tells everyone about Amanda at dinner and he smiles back when they smile fondly at him, even if they don't understand. He watches the adults shoot knowing looks at each other and the children snicker but he doesn't mind.

Padwa says that it takes a long time for people to understand and that it's okay. Stiles believes that the Hales will get there eventually. Until then, he'll talk to the unseen for them and be their voice where they can't speak. Padwa says that it's a very important thing that Stiles does but Stiles sees it as just being polite.

He knows what it's like to be different.


	3. Loving You is a Crime

Peter arrives at the Beacon County Sheriff's Department at approximately 1:10 AM. He's showered and changed clothes but he still feels like a filthy pervert. Tara greets him as he walks in.

"The Sheriff's not here right now." It says something that she knows him on sight. All of the deputies do, even the ones he's never been officially introduced to.

Peter's lips twist into a frown. He squares his shoulders and puts his wrists out on the counter. "I'm here to turn myself in."

Tara snorts. "For what? It doesn't count as bribing the Sheriff if he doesn't give you anything for making his favorite cookies."

"Statutory rape."

Tara's eyes widen. Peter looks longingly at the handcuffs on her waist but she doesn't reach them. Instead she whistles and shouts "Finally!" Both of the current deputies on duty turn to watch them. "So you and Stiles…" She makes a circle with one hand and pokes a finger through the circle.

Peter flushes. "What? No! He's sixteen." How is he the only one that cares about that?

"Oh." Tara's face falls. She waves a hand dismissively. "Go away."

"But… he… I…"

Tara leans forward with her elbows on the desk and gives him a level look. "Was it oral or anal sex?"

Peter is fairly certain his face is going to literally start sprouting flames. The two deputies are snickering. "Well… no."

Tara raises an eyebrow. "Did you touch Stiles in a sexual manner?"

"No."

It's obvious that she's trying hard to keep a stern face but she can't seem to stop herself from smiling. "Did you actually touch Stiles at all while this alleged sexual act occurred?"

Peter frowns. He shifts on his feet. Getting arrested really shouldn't be this hard. He also shouldn't be as well versed as he is in sexual conduct laws but Talia told him to stop asking her so he made a cheat sheet. "No."

Tara's head drops in what Peter first assumes is defeat and then realizes is actually an attempt to not laugh in his face. Her shoulders are shaking and even with the hand pressed over her mouth he can still hear her.

Peter sighs. "Criminal sexual act?"

Tara shakes her head.

"Endangering the welfare of a child?"

Tara snorts.

"How about disseminating indecent materials to a minor?"

Tara's head shoots up. "You sent him porn?"

"No!" Peter hesitates. He really doesn't want to admit it out loud because it just sounds so… juvenile, but she's not arresting him. "We had phone sex."

Tara doesn't even bother hiding her laughter this time. Her head falls back and she has to put one hand on the desk to steady herself while the other wraps around her middle. She eventually tapers off and waves her hand towards the bullpen. "Go wait in the office. I'll call John."

He goes and sits in the chair in front of John's desk. Tara closes the office door but Peter can still hear her making fun of him with the other deputies. It feels like being sent to the principal's office, like he's a child again and not in his thirties. He hears Tara call John and then he waits.

And waits.

And waits.

John finally shows up close to three in the morning with Claudia, Paul, and Talia in tow. They file into the office behind John, all three of them grinning like lunatics. Claudia doesn't even wait until the door shuts before she starts laughing at him. It's obvious she's trying to say something but all that he can make out is "your face."

John settles behind his desk and at least tries to look professional. He's wearing a flannel and jeans and smells a bit like margaritas so he doesn't quite pull it off. "Why don't you tell me what happened, Peter?"

Peter stares John straight in the face and says "I had sex with Stiles."

John nods like they're talking about the weather or Stiles's grades. "Over the phone."

"Yes."

"While you were next door to each other."

He's pretty sure that wasn't a question but he answers anyway. "Yes."

John sighs and gets that put-upon look on his face like he usually does these days whenever Stiles is involved in the conversation. "And did you call him or he call you?"

Peter licks his lips. Talia and Paul are whispering bad lines from pornos to each other. Claudia has yet to stop laughing. Sometimes Peter feels like the world's gone insane and he's the only one unaffected. "He called me."

"Uh huh. Did you, at any point, do or say anything that made my son act against his will?"

"No. Of course not."

John nods and looks down at his desk and then over at his computer. "Well, that's all I need to hear." He looks pointedly at Peter. "And I mean that. Nothing. I want to hear nothing. Nothing about you and my son and the sex you are not having."

"But, I-"

"Nope," John says. He points a finger at the door. "Out. All of you. It's far too late for this. I just want to go home and go to bed and then have a discussion with my son in the morning on appropriate phone conduct."

Peter is not pouting. Not at all. "You're not going to arrest me?"

"You damn well know that." John stands and pushes his hand through his hair. "Now, you can either keep sitting in here, alone, or you can go home and get some damn sleep." With that, John walks out. Talia clasps Peter on the shoulder before exiting with Paul.

Claudia drops into her husband's chair and spins around. "You know, that boy masturbates far too much. You'd think he forgot that he lives with a werewolf." She grins at him. It feels kind of predatory. "I never had much shame as a human, and I certainly don't have much left now, so if it'll make my son happy I can give you tips if you need. What he likes and all that. I was the one who gave him the talk about the bees and the bees so he's well educated."

Peter is pretty sure his eyes are as wide as saucers. It takes him a minute to process the words that have come out of Claudia's mouth, out of his soulmate's mother's mouth. He's disturbed. Deeply and utterly disturbed and he's fairly certain he needs twelve more showers before he'll consider himself clean again.

"He thinks about you a lot when he touches himself."

That's it. Peter's up and out of the chair. He runs out of the station. Talia and Paul are standing outside with John, waiting on Claudia, and they laugh raucously as he slams his car door and takes off out of the station parking lot at speeds that are definitely not legal.

This is one time when he's very glad that he can't get speeding tickets.


End file.
